School did. When I was a very young boy, 2 or 3, my parents did everything in their power to ensure I could read. They would read books to me, I would read boo

School did. When I was a very young boy, 2 or 3, my parents did everything in their power to ensure I could read. They would read books to me, I would read books to them. It is the very reason I am so well spoken and intelligent to this very day. Books were awesome. I loved books. Note the past tense. Loved. I have not been able to will myself to read a book on my own since the third grade. It was Lois Lowry's The Giver, that is the last book I can confirm to you that I read, in whole, because I wanted to. It was in the second grade that I had to do my first book report, and the entire concept of reading a book not for joy, but for work's sake, was a concept I could never rationalize. Even while I was reading The Giver, a book I had selected out of the elementary school's own library through my own volition, I received snide and discouraging comments from the library staff and teachers. "He shouldn't be reading that book." "That book is too advanced for his age." And on, and on. Something changed. I lost my will and my zest for books. Even books I would've very much liked to have finished and I found interesting, such as Mick Foley's Have a Nice Day!, his autobiography about breaking in to the wrestling business, I have not been able to finish. I have no will left inside of me to crack open a book, to even lift one off of the shelf. I feel like my love for books was steadily beaten out of me at a young age by the very institution whose job it was to educate me with them. At least this author seems to be on the right track. In all of my years of watching society ask "What is wrong with the kids today?" so few have bothered actually trying to ask the kids themselves.